SpiceWare's Blog

I can see the whole picture on my TV. I'd choose a lighter shade of green though, it's barely visible. (Or maybe I need to adjust my brightness )

I had the exact same experience. 200 scanlines is fine, but the green is too dark.

Thanx for the feedback! I've tweeked green and put up a new version. I made each player have a different luminance so they'll hopefully be noticably different on a B&W TV since the B&W switch sets PAL. Green had luminance 0, I've changed it to 8.

I know it seems kinda cool, but I'd argue against a switchable PAL/NTSC binary. Close to zero people will ever have opportunity to play on both PAL and NTSC TVs, let alone need to, and the switches are better used for something else.

 

Plus, if someone doesn't read the manual and has the switch in the wrong position, they could be mighty confused.

 

Also, it costs time and space to detect and switch between color palettes (and number of scanlines?) - time/space better used elsewhere, especially on a system as squeezed as the 2600.

 

My opinion, anyway. Take it for what it's worth.

That's something to consider, though I'll probably leave it alone for now unless/until I need the processing time. I'm planning on a paddle controlled menu to control the game options. I could put a COLOR=NTSC, B&W=PAL reminder on it.

 

Hitting SELECT will bring up the menu. Rotate 1's paddle to highlight an option then hit fire button to step thru the choices. When done rotate to START BATTLE then hit firebutton again ( or hit RESET)

 

 

Medieval
  Mayhem

Players 
 FOUR (three, two, one, and maybe doubles)

Speed
 FAST (medium, slow)

Multiball
  YES (no)

Catch
 YES (no)

Rebuild
 YES (no)

START BATTLE

I'm planning on a paddle controlled menu to control the game options.

Cool!

One option I would love to see is being able to select which corner you can play in one player games. It's one thing that limits the fun on the original 2600 Warlords. I got so tired of always being the upper left castle that I now only play Warlords as a multiplayer game.

 

Castle Crisis uses the keypad to select the castles before the game starts.

 

I realize this request may make the design more complicated.

Is the the problem the position itself, or that each computer player always played the same? I'm considering selectable AI levels for each computer controlled player.

For those with Superchargers, Cuttle or Krok Carts I'd appreciate any feedback on how this fits on your TVs as I'm attempting to use 200 scan lines for the displayed area.

 

Looks good here. Nothing's cut off, and my TV is pretty unforgiving.

Thanx for checking!

Is the the problem the position itself, or that each computer player always played the same? I'm considering selectable AI levels for each computer controlled player.

 

The position itself. It gets boring always playing in the same corner and then I feel out of place when I play in another corner in a mulitplayer game. I'm not sure if you can select which corner to play in the arcade game or not.

 

Selectable AI is another great feature though.

Would it be OK if you had to switch paddles to play a different corner? I could do the menu like this:

 

Medieval
  Mayhem

Player1 
 Human (AI Easy, AI Medium, AI Hard)

Player2 
 Human (AI Easy, AI Medium, AI Hard)

Player3 
 Human (AI Easy, AI Medium, AI Hard)

Player4 
 Human (AI Easy, AI Medium, AI Hard)

Speed
 FAST (medium, slow)

Multiball
  YES (no)

Catch
 YES (no)

Rebuild
 YES (no)

START BATTLE

Would it be OK if you had to switch paddles to play a different corner?

 

It might not be too bad, though flexibility could have some advantages, especially if someone is only using a single pair of paddles.

After adding the subpixel positioned fireballs this weekend, I think I need to address RAM usage before I can commit to the user selectable corners.

Would it be OK if you had to switch paddles to play a different corner?

 

It might not be too bad, though flexibility could have some advantages, especially if someone is only using a single pair of paddles.

 

I think switching paddles would work. I think it would be used most in one player games and it's not that big of a hassle to unplug the controllers if you only had one set of paddles.

 

 

After adding the subpixel positioned fireballs this weekend, I think I need to address RAM usage before I can commit to the user selectable corners.

 

I understand you have to make compromises. On my wish list for Medieval Mayhem, user selectable corners is low and would be one of the first features to go if it can't fit in. Multiple fireballs on the screen at once is at the top of the list.

Agreed - multiple balls is a must

I know it seems kinda cool, but I'd argue against a switchable PAL/NTSC binary. Close to zero people will ever have opportunity to play on both PAL and NTSC TVs, let alone need to, and the switches are better used for something else.

 

I think I may have to use seperate NTSC and PAL ROMs due to the fireball direction/speed tables. Any pointers on how to set up the source and do the compiles?

There you go:

 

NTSC			= 0
PAL			 = 1
COMPILE_VERSION = NTSC

IF COMPILE_VERSION = PAL
BROWN	   = $2A
RED		 = $64
BLACK	   = $00
BLUE		= $B8
WHITE	   = $0F
YELLOW	  = $2C
GREEN	   = $58
GREY		= $04
ELSE
BROWN	   = $FA
RED		 = $44
BLACK	   = $00
BLUE		= $98
WHITE	   = $0F
YELLOW	  = $1E
GREEN	   = $CA
GREY		= $04
ENDIF

That's pretty easy, thanx! I was expecting command line switches like I used back when I maintained the OS/2 port of Stella.